nd also
introducing those who are of most consequence amongst them into office;
nor disgracing those who are desirous of honour; or encroaching on the
property of individuals; towards those who have, by behaving to each
other upon an equality; for that equality which the favourers of a
democracy desire to have established in the state is not only just,
but convenient also, amongst those who are of the same rank: for which
reason, if the administration is in the hands of many, those rules which
are established in democracies will be very useful; as to let no one
continue in office longer than six months: that all those who are of
the same rank may have their turn; for between these there is a sort
of democracy: for which reason demagogues are most likely to arise up
amongst them, as we have already mentioned: besides, by this means both
aristocracies and democracies will be the less liable to be corrupted
into dynasties, because it will not be so easy for those who are
magistrates for a little to do as much mischief as they could in a
long time: for it is from hence that tyrannies arise in democracies
and oligarchies; for either those who are most powerful in each state
establish a tyranny, as the demagogues in the one, the dynasties in the
other, or the chief magistrates who have been long in power. Governments
are sometimes preserved not only by having the means of their corruption
at a great distance, but also by its being very near them; for those who
are alarmed at some impending evil keep a stricter hand over the state;
for which reason it is necessary for those who have the guardianship of
the constitution to be able to awaken the fears of the people, that they
may preserve it, and not like a night-guard to be remiss in protecting
the state, but to make the distant danger appear at hand. Great care
ought also to be used to endeavour to restrain the quarrels and disputes
of the nobles by laws, as well as to prevent those who are not already
engaged in them from taking a part therein; for to perceive an evil
at its very first approach is not the lot of every one, but of the
politician. To prevent any alteration taking place in an oligarchy or
free state on account of the census, if that happens to continue the
same while the quantity of money is increased, it will be useful to take
a general account of the whole amount of it in former times, to compare
it with the present, and to do this every year in those cities whe